


Doors of Opportunity

by aderyn



Series: Deep Map [14]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e01 A Study in Pink, Magic Realism, invisible doors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-25 01:14:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 358
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/633524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>London is full of doors. All he has to do is pick one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Doors of Opportunity

“ _My friends without fathers or houses hear_

_Doors opening in the darkness_

_Whose halls announce_

_Behold the smoke has come home”—W.S. Merwin, “My Friends”_

London is full of doors (past present future other). All he has to do is pick one.

They all lead somewhere, the doors, sliding, opening, closing, revolving.  Train doors and library doors and surgery doors. The portals that opened on the vista of his childhood, that whole shining vale; no, the cramped back garden that lead to the gates of uni and medical school and the transport bays, the armed doors of the Blackhawk with the hot wind roaring through. The pale between.

He limped into Bart’s, blue, through an invisible door.  What you’d call a window, Sherlock would say. That’s what he’d say now. 

*******

Around four, the rain begins. The wardrobe calls to him like light. He could step through. It’s a dream.

He wakes up at a crime scene.  
  
We could use a little help in here, Lestrade’s saying.  John counts. John compresses a chest. John’s hands say _choose, choose, choose_.

They're lovers. They’re partners. They’re flatmates.They’re friends. They solve crimes. They forget. They save themselves.

John can't remember which world he's in, sometimes. 

I fucking love you, Sherlock, he shouts one day. Who knows what day it is, what time, what year …something swings round and hits him square, the whole bloody weight of the past.

The palace shuttered for the night, Sherlock leaps the moat and stays.

*******

There was a door. There were windows. There was the flicker of a grate inside, a lick of a voice that might speak (as if from bones) the chemistry that makes the flames. (Five-carbon sugars, _come up_ , fatty acids, _come up_ ,  resins and terpines and _a side of crime_ , aromatic rings and _stay_.)

He slips past all the gates of the City, the churches, the temples, the graveyards, the schools, stops on Baker with its brass and its brick. Do I know you. Do I love you. We’ve been here before.

He’s got his kit,his scars,his cane, his gun. There are blues. There’s a light. There’s a door.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [ Justgot1](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Justgot1/pseuds/Justgot1) wrote a gem about thresholds ([ “Liminal”](http://archiveofourown.org/works/632191)) and it moved me to finish this. Thank you, justgot1! 
> 
> [In praise of Ianus, god of doorways, gates, endings, beginnings](http://aediculaantinoi.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/in-praise-of-ianus/).  
> [ Janus door](http://www.flickr.com/photos/bazzadarambler/2944877498/)  
> [Doors of London](http://famillesummerbelle.typepad.com/fsblog/2008/03/london-doors.html)  
> [ Temples of London](http://www.gadling.com/2011/12/24/8-must-see-temples-in-london-united-kingdom/)  
> [ York Gate, Marylebone Road](http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamjudson/6175067875/)  
> [ Snake Doors, Brompton Cemetery](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:United_Kingdom_-_England_-_London_-_Brompton_Cemetery_-_Snake_Doors.jpg)  
> [Quarryquest's amazing locations: North Gower Street, Speedy's,doors](http://quarryquest.livejournal.com/678968.html)  
> [ 221B](http://foter.com/221B-Baker-Street/)  
> [Another 221B](http://www.sherlockology.com/locations/221b)
> 
> Here comes the shadow not looking where it is going,  
> And the whole night will fall; it is time. –W.S. Merwin,“Sire”


End file.
